Technology Engineers' development projects are built utilizing a professional services delivery model, ensuring consistent and high quality execution of client engagements. Key to the success of this delivery model is a stable, skilled, experienced and talented staff of professionals – professionals who share a commitment to the long-term satisfaction of our clients. Although software developers, who are current and proficient with the latest, most powerful tools used to create Internet and database systems, are at the heart of our delivery model, the project manager and chief software architect are the people responsible for managing the application development process and designing the system components and database schemas.
A Technology Engineers Project Manager is assigned to each engagement by the project executive. The project manager directs all project resources and is the single point of project communications with the client. Our Chief Software Architect, sometimes assisted by an architect assigned specifically to a large project, is responsible for the technical direction and decisions on the project. When the client has in-house technical staff available, the Chief Software Architect works closely with them to assure seamless design and deployment of the application.
Depending on the size and complexity of the project, team leaders are assigned by management for areas such as requirements analysis, design, development and testing.
Client personnel are often included on project teams to reduce project development costs, and to develop in-house skills that will be helpful in supporting and maintaining the completed system.
For large projects, a Technology Engineers Project Executive serves as Program Manager, communicating directly with client top executives on overall satisfaction with project design and progress. Project executives are usually senior managers with over twenty years of information technology experience, specifically in application development.
Based on the size and scope of individual statements of work, team leaders are assigned to various project areas, such as requirements analysis, design, development, and testing. These team leaders are primarily IT professionals, whose capabilities and strengths are well understood.
Our standard project management methodology includes project planning and tracking. The steps below are the responsibility of the Technology Engineers Project Manager, and outline our approach, showing key planning and tracking milestones:
- Document project objectives
- Document methodology to be used
- Record in detail the project scope and assumptions
- Obtain agency approval
- Conduct a kickoff meeting with management and team members
Milestone: Approved Project Definition Document
- Tasks and milestones
- Start and end dates
- Assigned resources, including Technology Engineers, subcontractor, and agency
- Task dependencies
- Agency approval
Milestone: Approved Project Plan
- Conduct weekly status meetings with management and project team
- Resolve deviations in the project plan with agency management
- Perform issue, change, and risk management
- Produce monthly status reports
- Provide quality assurance - quarterly review of project controls by senior level executives
Deliverables: Monthly Status Reports
A Monthly Status Report to the client details actual progress of tasks compared to planned progress in the approved project plan. For tasks that are behind schedule, agreed upon corrective actions are included. A summary of issues, changes and risk management activities are included. Also, a summary of project hours expended during the previous month, compared to hours planned, is prepared for review.
In the process of pricing a proposal for a client’s Statement of Work, Technology Engineers estimates the number of hours by category needed to satisfy a particular requirement. In the Project Planning step of our methodology, we develop a detailed Project Plan containing tasks, resources, and number of hours planned by resource for each task.
Once work begins on the project, resources will report their actual hours worked by task to the Project Manager. The Project Manager then tracks these actual hours in the Project Plan and produces reports comparing actual-hours usage to planned usage. The Project Manager will resolve variances between actual and planned hours with project team members and the client.
A key part of our process is the development of a Project Schedule. In the Project Planning phase of our methodology, we develop detailed project plans, breaking the estimated schedule into detailed tasks and milestones. At project inception, team members begin reporting Task Starts and Completions to the Project Manager weekly. The Project Manager enters the actual Starts and Completions into the Project Plan tool, producing reports that compare actual dates with planned dates. The Project Manager then resolves variances between actual and planned dates with project team members and the client.
The Technology Engineers methodology includes Issue Management. During the project kick-off meeting, the Technology Engineers Project Manager distributes an Issue Form used to report issues or problems. The Issue Form can be completed by any stakeholder in the project and returned to the Project Manager, who tracks reported issues in a Summary Log.
It is the Project Manager’s responsibility to conduct weekly meetings to review the status of issue resolution. The meeting is usually attended by key project team members and any agency representative designated by the client. Any issue resolution requiring a change to the Project Plan, or other project baseline document, is subject to the Change Control process.A summary of issue management activities is always included in the Monthly Status Report created for this project by the Project Manager.
The Technology Engineers methodology includes Risk Management. Once work begins, the Project Manager schedules a meeting or series of meetings to initiate the Risk Management process. The meeting is attended by key project team members and client personnel.
The purpose of the meeting is to identify future events that could impact the successful completion of the project. Once identified, a contingency plan is adopted for each risk event based on the impact of the risk and the likelihood of its occurrence. Upon completion and approval by the client, this information becomes the Risk Management Plan for the project. oject. The Project Manager then schedules periodic meetings to review and modify the plan throughout the project.
At the time the Technology Engineers proposal is developed for a particular Statement of Work, the staffing needs of the project are determined. During proposal development, key resource assignments are made, such as the Project Manager, analysts and software developers. Team members are generally assigned based on their skill match to the assigned tasks.
A Monthly Status Report to client is produced showing actual progress of tasks compared to planned progress in the approved Project Plan. For tasks that are behind schedule, agreed upon corrective actions are included. A summary of the issues, changes, and risk management activities are included. Also, a summary of project hours expended compared to hours planned is included.
Quality Assurance takes two forms in the Technology Engineers methodology. First, the Project Executive provides periodic reviews and oversight of the project controls in place to ensure a successful project outcome. Second, our Technical Services methodology contains steps to insure the quality of the deliverables and work products. These steps include oversight by our Chief Software Architect, peer code reviews, unit and system testing and user acceptance testing.
At the time our proposal is developed for a particular Statement of Work, we determine the necessity of specialized skills, if any, to satisfy the requirements of the project. If specialized skills are needed beyond those of our full-time IT professionals, a subcontractor may be included in the proposal. In this case, Technology Engineers assumes complete responsibility for all services offered in the proposal, whether provided by us directly, or by the subcontractor. Technology Engineers will be the sole point of contact with regard to contractual matters, including payment of any charges. Technology Engineers will also be responsible for all deliverables.
The Technology Engineers Project Manager will manage the work effort of any subcontractors. The Project Plan will include all tasks assigned to be subcontractor. All project management activities, such as project planning, tracking, issues, changes, risk management, and project reporting, will include the subcontractor work effort as an integrated project component. The Technology Engineers Project Manager serves as our single point of contact for project communications with the client for all project matters, including those relating to subcontractor work effort.
IT professionals at Technology Engineers have skills and experiences that give us an understanding of the information technology complexities facing most clients. Our managers have an appreciation of the resource limitations (primarily skilled technical and project management personnel) faced by all organizations trying implement new systems. Because of our experience with large, complex system development projects, we have acquired first-rate technical and analytical skills in a number of IT areas and have the capability to develop applications with intricate business rules and requiring the latest, state-of-the-art technologies.
Our focus will continue to be on acquiring skills and experience in component-based architectures that are important for developing state-of-the-art systems.
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